the jenny lawson let's pretend this never happened national bloggess book tour
Remember Jenny? My very funny, profane, outrageous friend whose husband threw the sweet surprise celebration party for her in San Antonio? Well, I've just returned from her Houston book signing event at Blue Willow Book Shop, and I think I can unequivocally say that my friend is a screaming success. She's been on a national tour to launch her book, Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir, to huge standing-room only crowds, and I'm here to tell you that her Houston stop was no exception.
In fact, the crowd was so big, they had to host it outside:
See?
Luckily, there was a microphone and a public address system, so people could experience the full impact of her words as she read from her book:
That's right, my friends. She had them weeping.
After her reading and a quick question-and-answer session, Jenny went inside, and people were brought into the store in small groups for her to sign their books...
... and silly me, I thought that was all that people would want her to sign. Because, you know, it was a book signing.
But HELL no.
I forgot: this is The Bloggess we're talking about. And when we're talking about The Bloggess, we're talking about some serious adoration here. Books were only the beginning.
For example, one woman asked Jenny to sign her Nook:
... which, okay, fair enough.
And then another woman asked her to sign her metal chicken:
... which, if you've read Jenny's adventures with Beyoncé, the Giant Metal Chicken, isn't too surprising.
But there were also items I totally didn't expect. Like, you know ...
... t-shirts. And...
... prescription bottles of Xanax. And ...
... oh my.
For two solid hours, Jenny signed everything that was placed before her, and was her completely gracious, warm, wonderful self. It was all I could do to keep from exploding with pride, watching my friend receive the congratulations and warm wishes from all the good people who came out to support her work.
Because when amazing things happen to amazing people, all feels very right with the world.
(Jenny has a few more stops on her tour -- if she's coming to your town, please go see her. You won't regret it. And trust me, she'll sign anything.)
Song: All I wanna do by Sheryl Crow. Jenny was singing this song as she was getting ready for her talk tonight.